Hours (David Bowie album)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hours
Bowie Hours.jpg
Studio album by
David Bowie
Released4 October 1999 (1999-10-04)[1]
Recorded1998–1999
Studio
GenrePop rock[3]
Length47:06
LabelVirgin
Producer
David Bowie chronology
The Best of David Bowie 1974/1979
(1998) 		Hours
(1999) 		LiveAndWell.com
(1999)
David Bowie studio albums chronology
Earthling
(1997) 		Hours
(1999) 		Heathen
(2002)
Singles from Hours
  1. "Thursday's Child"
    Released: 20 September 1999 (1999-09-20)
  2. "The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell"
    Released: 14 October 1999 (1999-10-14)
  3. "Survive"
    Released: 24 January 2000 (2000-01-24)
  4. "Seven"
    Released: 17 July 2000 (2000-07-17)

Hours (stylised as 'hours...' ) is the 21st studio album by English singer David Bowie. It was released on 4 October 1999 on Virgin Records. This was Bowie's final album for the EMI sub-label. It was the first complete album by a major artist available to download over the Internet, preceding the physical release by two weeks.[4]

Although Hours peaked at number 5 on the UK Albums Chart, it was Bowie's first studio album since his 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars to miss the U.S. Billboard 200 top 40, peaking at number 47. It has received mixed reviews from critics.

Background[]

See also: The Nomad Soul § Development and release

Bowie and Reeves Gabrels wrote the songs for both Hours and the adventure video game Omikron: The Nomad Soul at the same time. According to Gabrels, they set up special writing sessions to write the music for these projects, then recorded demos in studios in Bermuda and Paris. Gabrels himself wrote over 3 hours of instrumental songs for the game (on top of the songs which he and Bowie had written together). Gabrels described these tracks as "more electronic and aggressive in nature than the Hours album" and suggested there would be an Omikron, The Nomad Soul instrumental album released the next year.[2]

Hours was thought of as the soundtrack CD for Omikron as late as June 1999. In the game, released by Eidos Interactive about a month later than the album, Bowie played the role of a character called Boz, while his wife Iman appeared as an "incarnable" who introduced "virtual reincarnation". Furthermore, Bowie appeared together with Gabrels and Gail Ann Dorsey as "The Dreamers", a virtual band performing in bars around Omikron City.[5] Bowie named a track on the album "The Dreamers" and considered using the name as the title for the album.[6] Characters in the game could also buy a virtual album that they could listen to in their apartments.[5] Omikron: The Nomad Soul included eight songs, all of them also appeared on Hours ("We All Go Through" only as a Japanese bonus track, but also as a related single b-side and on the 2005 bonus disc). At an E3 press conference Bowie said "I moved right away from the stereotypical industrial game-music sound. My priority in writing music for Omikron was to give it an emotional subtext. It feels to me as though Reeves and I have achieved that. We both worked really close with Quantic Dream to come up with eight new songs for the game."[7]

The game also included 34 "Instrumental Songs", of which 26 were written and performed by Gabrels and 8 by Bowie and Gabrels. Half of the tracks by Bowie and Gabrels were "easy listening versions" of some of the vocal songs.[8] Some of the other "instrumental songs" would be further developed and released as b-sides, for instance "Awakened 2" is an instrumental version of "No One Calls" and "Thrust" (as heard during a rooftop fight with a demon) would become "1917".[9] Only three songs on Hours were not from Omikron: "If I'm Dreaming My Life", "What's Really Happening", and "Brilliant Adventure", although the latter was actually considered as incidental music for the game.[10]

Bowie and Gabrels did a lot of early work in Gabrels' apartment. Then, according to Gabrels, "I would bring the drive over to where we were working at Chung King or Looking Glass studios and do the drums, the guitars that needed room sound, or the final vocals there."[11]

To drum up interest in the impending album, a "Cyber Song" contest was held on Bowie's personal website BowieNet to compose lyrics to an early instrumental version of the song "What's Really Happening". The winning lyrics would be featured on Hours. Contest winner Alex Grant[2] also won a trip to Philip Glass' Looking Glass Studios on 24 May 1999 to watch Bowie record the final vocal during a live Webcast. There, Grant contributed backing vocals to the song, along with a friend who accompanied him.

Artwork[]

The album cover, designed by Rex Ray with photography by Tim Bret Day and Frank Ockenfels, depicts the short-haired Bowie persona from the intensely energetic previous album Earthling exhausted, resting in the arms of a long-haired, more youthful version of Bowie. Indeed, Hours is a much mellower album than its predecessor, and features numerous references to earlier parts of Bowie's musical career (particularly the early 1970s). For the album's initial release, a number of copies featured a lenticular version of the cover, lending a three-dimensional effect to the image. [12]

Gabrels' departure[]

This was the last studio album with Bowie for Gabrels, who had worked with Bowie since 1988. During the recording of the album, Gabrels started to notice some disagreements building, which made him realize that his time as a bandmate and recording partner were over. Said Gabrels, "I knew from January of '99 that there was a long road for me to leave him, without leaving him hanging."[13] For one, Bowie had the idea to bring R&B group TLC in to sing backing vocals on the track "Thursday's Child". Gabrels said, "I was so pissed off .... Now we've acquired the audience that we wanted, and you're gonna put TLC on the record, and [the fans are] going to say, 'Fuck him!'"[13] Gabrels won the argument, and his friend Holly Palmer was brought in to sing on the track, and she would join the touring band as well.[13]

Gabrels was frustrated by how originally, "we did a different version of the Hours record, and I had played bass on that, and we let it sit and then we listened to it, and David said it was too raw. I thought it had a certain Diamond Dogs quality, but he wanted it to be more slick and polished and have fretless bass. … Mark Plati came in at the end of Hours to play fretless bass and remix the record." He said, "There’s a track from the Hours era that was a b-side called 'And We Shall Go To Town' that I thought was a key track for that album and it ended up being taken off the album, and that was part of the final straw for me. It was a very dark track."[14]

For the last live show that Gabrels performed with Bowie, for VH1 Storytellers, Gabrels had Plati join the band so that David would "get used to him."[13] Said Gabrels, "I put Mark next to David where I used to stand. I cannot remember whether that was conscious or unconscious."[13] After Bowie died in 2016, Gabrels said of his departure, "I was running out of ideas for him. I was afraid that if I stayed, I would become a bitter kind of person. I’m sure you’ve spoken to people who have done one thing for too long, and they start to lose respect for the people they work for, and I didn’t want to be that guy. The most logical thing for me to do at that point was to leave and do something else. I departed on good terms."[13]

Critical reception[]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic3/5 stars[15]
Alternative Press4/5[16]
Entertainment WeeklyB–[17]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music4/5 stars[18]
Pitchfork4.7/10[19]
Q4/5 stars[20]
Rolling Stone4/5 stars[21]
Select2/5[22]
Spin6/10[23]
Uncut3/5 stars[12]

The album has received mixed reviews from critics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote: "it may not be one of Bowie's classics, but it's the work of a masterful musician who has begun to enjoy his craft again and isn't afraid to let things develop naturally."[15] Rolling Stone critic Greg Tate described the record as "an album that improves with each new hearing" and "further confirmation of Richard Pryor's observation that they call them old wise men because all them young wise men are dead".[21] Similarly impressed, Alternative Press described Hours as "a masterpiece", adding that it "finds Bowie returning to basics he never should have left behind".[16]

Ryan Schreiber of Pitchfork criticised the album, saying: "Hours opts for a spacy, but nonetheless adult-contemporary sound that comes across with all the vitality and energy of a rotting log." Schreiber further stated: "No, it's not a new low, but that doesn't mean it's not embarrassing."[19] Writing for Select, John Mullen considered the album to be an improvement on Earthling, but likened Bowie to a "more high-brow" version of Sting and concluded: "Even on the personal exorcism of 'Seven' there's a lack of urgency that suggests that the 'confessional' is just another style Bowie's trying out for size."[22]

Releases[]

An edition with additional tracks was released in 2004. In January 2005, Bowie's new label ISO Records reissued Hours as a double CD set with the second CD comprising remixes, alternate versions, and single B-sides.[24]

Promotion[]

Bowie took the album on the road for the 3-month Hours Tour in late 1999. In August, he appeared on VH1's Storytellers, and in October, he appeared on the 25th season of Saturday Night Live to perform "Thursday's Child" and "Rebel Rebel".[25] His appearance on VH1 Storytellers was released in 2009 as VH1 Storytellers. In 2020, a live concert recording from the tour was released as Something in the Air (Live Paris 99),[26] and in 2021 another show was released as David Bowie at the Kit Kat Klub (Live New York 99).[27]

Track listing[]

All tracks are written by David Bowie and Reeves Gabrels; except "What's Really Happening?", with lyrics by Alex Grant.

Hours – Standard edition
No.TitleLength
1."Thursday's Child"5:24
2."Something in the Air"5:46
3."Survive"4:11
4."If I'm Dreaming My Life"7:04
5."Seven"4:04
6."What's Really Happening?"4:10
7."The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell"4:40
8."New Angels of Promise"4:35
9."Brilliant Adventure"1:54
10."The Dreamers"5:14
Hours – Japanese edition
No.TitleLength
11."We All Go Through"4:10
Hours – 2004 reissue edition
No.TitleLength
11."Something in the Air" (American Psycho remix)6:02
12."Survive" (Marius de Vries mix)4:18
13."Seven" (demo)4:07
14."The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell" (Stigmata film version)4:46
15."We All Go Through"4:10
Hours – 2005 2CD edition (disc 2)
No.TitleLength
1."Thursday's Child" (rock mix)4:29
2."Thursday's Child" (Omikron: The Nomad Soul slower version)5:35
3."Something in the Air" (American Psycho remix)6:03
4."Survive" (Marius de Vries mix)4:18
5."Seven" (demo)4:07
6."Seven" (Marius de Vries mix)4:13
7."Seven" (Beck mix #1)3:46
8."Seven" (Beck mix #2)5:14
9."The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell" (edit)4:00
10."The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell" (Stigmata film version)4:49
11."The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell" (Stigmata film-only version)4:00
12."New Angels of Promise" (Omikron: The Nomad Soul version)4:38
13."The Dreamers" (Omikron: The Nomad Soul longer version)5:43
14."1917"3:29
15."We Shall Go to Town"3:55
16."We All Go Through"4:11
17."No-one Calls"3:50

Personnel[]

Adapted from AllMusic.[28]

  • David Bowie – drum programming, 12-string guitar, keyboards, producer, vocals
  • Everett Bradley – percussion (on "Seven")
  • Sterling Campbell – drums
  • Reeves Gabrels – drum programming, guest artist, guitar, producer, synthesizer programming
  • Chris Haskett – rhythm guitar (on "If I'm Dreaming My Life")
  • Ryoji Hata – assistant engineer
  • Mike Levesque – drums
  • Jay Nicholas – assistant engineer
  • Holly Palmer – background vocals (on "Thursday's Child")
  • Kevin Paul – engineer
  • Mark Plati – bass guitar, acoustic and electric 12-string guitar, synth and drum programming, mellotron (on "Survive")
  • Andy VanDette – mastering

Charts[]

References[]

  1. ^ "David Bowie - News, September 1999". bowiewonderworld.com. Archived from the original on 23 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c Pafford, Steve (1999). "Wednesday's Child". Record Collector: 24–25.
  3. ^ Lariviere, Aaron (22 March 2013). "David Bowie Albums From Worst To Best: Hours..." Stereogum. Archived from the original on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  4. ^ Cummings, Sue (22 September 1999), "The Flux in Pop Music Has a Distinctly Download Beat to It", New York Times, archived from the original on 14 November 2013, retrieved 1 November 2013
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b "Billboard Newspaper". 5 June 1999. p. 101.
  6. ^ Roberts, Chris (November 1999). "Station to Station". Uncut. pp. 44–64.
  7. ^ Chart Beat Thursday: Eminem, Jason Derulo, Cyndi Lauper Archived 24 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine Billboard. Retrieved February 20, 2012
  8. ^ The Nomad Soul (manual/booklet) (PDF). Eidos Interactive. 1999.
  9. ^ "Pushing Ahead of the Dame - Omikron: The Nomad Soul (& BowieBanc & BowieNet)". 28 October 2013. Archived from the original on 25 May 2017. Retrieved 13 September 2016./
  10. ^ "Pushing Ahead of the Dame - Brilliant Adventure". 26 November 2013. Archived from the original on 17 September 2016. Retrieved 13 September 2016./
  11. ^ "David Torn and Reeves Gabrels Talk ReRecording Bowie". 29 October 2018. Archived from the original on 1 July 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b "David Bowie Hours …". Uncut. November 1999. p. 143.
  13. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "David Bowie: How Tin Machine Saved Him From Soft Rock". 22 May 2019. Archived from the original on 1 July 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  14. ^ Ives, Brian (20 February 2017). "David Bowie: A Look Back at His '90s Era – When He Got Weird Again". Archived from the original on 28 March 2018. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  15. ^ Jump up to: a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Hours – David Bowie". AllMusic. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  16. ^ Jump up to: a b "David Bowie Hours". Alternative Press. December 1999. p. 88.
  17. ^ Willman, Chris (11 October 1999). "hours …". Entertainment Weekly. pp. 77–78. Archived from the original on 6 November 2016. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  18. ^ Larkin, Colin (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press.
  19. ^ Jump up to: a b Schreiber, Ryan. "David Bowie: Hours". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 3 March 2011. Retrieved 26 April 2011.
  20. ^ "David Bowie Hours …". Q. November 1999. p. 120.
  21. ^ Jump up to: a b "David Bowie: Hours: Music Reviews". Rolling Stone. 28 October 1999. Archived from the original on 22 June 2008. Retrieved 30 June 2010.
  22. ^ Jump up to: a b Mullen, John (November 1999). "David Bowie hours …". Select. p. 87.
  23. ^ Walters, Barry (November 1999). "David Bowie hours …". Spin. pp. 181, 184. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  24. ^ James, Brian (8 April 2004), "David Bowie: Hours [Reissue]", Pop Matters, archived from the original on 8 November 2013, retrieved 1 November 2013
  25. ^ "SNL Show". 2 October 1999. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  26. ^ Richards, Will (15 August 2020). "Listen to David Bowie's new 1999 live album 'Something In The Air'". Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  27. ^ Kreps, Daniel (17 March 2021). "David Bowie's 'Brilliant Live Adventures' Series Closes With Famed 1999 NYC Gig". Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  28. ^ "Hours - David Bowie". AllMusic. Archived from the original on 11 July 2015. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  29. ^ "Australiancharts.com – David Bowie – Hours...". Hung Medien. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  30. ^ "Austriancharts.at – David Bowie – Hours..." (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  31. ^ "Ultratop.be – David Bowie – Hours..." (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  32. ^ "Ultratop.be – David Bowie – Hours..." (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  33. ^ "Top Albums/CDs - Volume 69, No. 26". RPM. 18 October 1999. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  34. ^ "Listen - Danmarks Officielle Hitliste - Udarbejdet af AIM Nielsen for IFPI Danmark - Uge 41". Ekstra Bladet (in Danish). Copenhagen. 17 October 1999.
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  36. ^ "David Bowie: Hours..." (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  37. ^ "Lescharts.com – David Bowie – Hours...". Hung Medien. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  38. ^ "Longplay-Chartverfolgung at Musicline" (in German). Musicline.de. Phononet GmbH. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  39. ^ "Highest position and charting weeks of Hours... by David Bowie" (in Japanese). Oricon Style. Archived from the original on 5 March 2014. Retrieved 10 October 2013.
  40. ^ "Charts.nz – David Bowie – Hours...". Hung Medien. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  41. ^ "Norwegiancharts.com – David Bowie – Hours...". Hung Medien. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
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  47. ^ "Les Albums Or". infodisc.fr. SNEP. Archived from the original on 28 August 2012. Retrieved 24 August 2012.
  48. ^ "French album certifications – David Bowie – Hours" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  49. ^ "British album certifications – David Bowie – Hours". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 10 October 2012.Select albums in the Format field. Select Silver in the Certification field. Type Hours in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.

External links[]

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